Concert salutes late Irish folk musician Tommy Makem

Thursday

Jan 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMJan 31, 2008 at 4:39 PM

On Saturday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m., The Makem Brothers, Mickey and Liam Spain, The Dady Brothers, Brendan Carroll and Liam Maguire will take the stage at Memorial Hall in Melrose, and Makem’s memory will take top billing.

Daniel DeMaina

Tommy Makem should have been here for this.

“The Godfather of Irish Music,” as he was called, was battling lung cancer last year when he had to cancel what had become an annual event — playing a sellout concert at Memorial Hall in Melrose each March for St. Patrick’s Day, either solo or with his three sons, The Makem Brothers.

Makem succumbed to lung cancer in August 2007, leaving legions of heartbroken fans.

Stephen Jones, who first brought Makem to Melrose 10 years ago and organized the concerts here ever since, was surprised when he received a phone call last May from Shane Makem, one of The Makem Brothers, saying Tommy was feeling better and wanted to book this year’s show.

“Tommy was actually booked for Feb. 9, [2008] with The Makem Brothers and Mickey and Liam Spain,” Jones said.

Makem died on Aug. 1, 2007 at the age of 74. What began as a triumphant return to the stage in Melrose became a tribute.

On Saturday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m., The Makem Brothers, Mickey and Liam Spain, The Dady Brothers, Brendan Carroll and Liam Maguire will take the stage at Memorial Hall, and Makem’s memory will take top billing.

Jones said after Makem’s death, he spoke with his sons and they confirmed they still wanted to perform as scheduled.

“That’s where the idea for ‘Let’s do a tribute’ came from,” Jones said. “I asked The Makem Brothers, ‘I’d like you guys to invite whoever you like. They came up with The Dady Brothers, who I believe are probably closer to Tommy’s age. They’re clearly friends of the family and ones The Makem Brothers felt comfortable inviting. I had the latitude to invite others and I suggested Liam Maguire — that was a natural — again because of my familiarity of going to Liam’s pub and restaurant.”

Ten years ago, Jones — an avowed fan of Irish music —and his wife were involved in Melrose Youth Ballet through the couple’s young daughters. Seeking to put together a fundraiser for the organization, Jones suggested trying to get Makem to do a concert, since he only lived one state north in New Hampshire.

“The interesting part is that my siblings live down the Cape and go to Liam Maguire’s pub in Falmouth,” Jones said. “My brother told me Tommy Makem performed there, and I said, ‘Oh, that’d be great if we could actually get him.’ I went down there and, through Tommy performing at Liam’s, I got to talk to Tommy’s booking agent at the time, Kevin O’Shea.”

Jones called O’Shea and asked, with little to no expectations, if they could book Makem for a fundraiser in Melrose.

“He said ‘yeah,’ quite to my surprise,” Jones said.

That first show sold out in a month, and thus began an almost-decade long partnership between Makem and fundraising in Melrose. Throughout the years, Makem’s concerts raised money for several organizations, including venerable Memorial Hall itself.

“Besides all that, I like Irish music,” Jones said. “I grew up listening to the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, so it’s always been fun for me to do. And now The Makem Brothers have really come of age. They’re a great band in their own right.”

The Makem Brothers, performing on a cruise this week, could not be reached before Free Press deadline.

An ‘ordinary man’

Maguire, like Makem, is a native of Ireland — Castle Derg in County Tyrone — and has known Makem throughout the years as both friend and musical colleague. Maguire will be performing at the concert.

“I think it’s a great, great idea,” Maguire’s baritone brogue rumbles during a phone interview. “It’s a great tribute to him. Tommy was a legend in the Irish community. He did good things for Irish music and kept Irish music alive — and wrote an awful lot of songs as well.”

Brendan Carroll, a Melrose resident originally from Roscrea in County Tipperary, will also be performing. Carroll knew Makem professionally more than personally, but the late musician has been a lifelong presence in his life.

“I have seen Tommy Makem in concert before his sons were born,” Carroll said. “I can literally remember sitting on my father’s knee, because kids could get into shows in Ireland for free as long as they sat on their parents knee and didn’t take up a seat.”

Carroll, who took over Makem’s slot after he canceled last year “because I didn’t want the tribute to die,” thinks Melrose needed to have this concert.

“It kind of finishes, brings some closure for people in Melrose who can appreciate that here we are, in a small town in Massachusetts, and he has come here every year for nine years,” he said. “He was kind of the forefront of the Irish festivities around the world, but hey, we get number one dibs on him. And he never let us down.”

Offstage, Makem had the same presence he had onstage, Maguire said — that of a gentle, kind soul.

“Whether you were a musician or not, if you met Tommy you felt you just met a new friend. He was very good with everybody,” he said.

Carroll said on the few occasions he met Makem, either in Melrose or up in Dover N.H., what struck him most was Makem’s low-key manner, in stark contrast to his public fame.

“Just a nice guy, like an ordinary guy. He wasn’t out there trying to flaunt himself that he’s world famous,” he said. “I think he got mentioned in 400 newspapers worldwide about his death. They won’t be mentioning presidents in some countries, but they’ll mention Tommy Makem. He became friends with people because he was just an ordinary man.”

That completely ordinary feeling may have been on reason Makem connected with audiences so well, beyond his musical talent. Maguire likened it to seeing a friend of yours on stage, even if you didn’t know Makem.

“These guys [Makem and the Clancy Brothers] were on the Ed Sullivan Show and things like this, but they were no different than anybody else from back home,” he said. “He was the most down-to-earth person I’ve ever met. He had that charisma that just captured the audience … he wasn’t being an entertainer on stage. He was just being Tommy. If you sat down in a coffee shop drinking coffee with him, first he’s up on stage performing, then he’s drinking the coffee, sitting down and he’s telling you the other part of the story.”

A legacy of bringing Irish culture to the world

Beyond the performances, Makem brought Irish culture around the world, both popularizing the music and making listeners aware of the rich tradition of storytelling in Irish folk songs.

Maguire said the songs Makem performed were being sung in every home in Ireland.

“All of a sudden Makem and the Clancy Brothers brought it together and brought it to the stage,” along with Makem’s own songs, Magurie said.

Part of the appeal came from the songs about troubles and hardship in Ireland — songs that resonated with Irish around the world and others who understood what it meant to come up in hard times, Maguire said.

“It’s become a very rich country, but we’re not singing about that. We’re singing about the old times,” he said. “Going back 50 years ago, things were bad in Ireland. The lovely part about Ireland was we had our songs and we had our music and we sat around with these songs, telling our stories … they immigrated here because there was no work and you hear these old songs and it reminds you.

“We’re not crying in our beer, but it helps to have the beer there to catch the tears,” Maguire adds with a laugh.

Carroll also cited the working class roots of Makem’s music.

“He grew up with the rest of us,” he said. “I grew up in the equivalent of the projects in Ireland. When you’re an ordinary guy you remember your roots, where you came from. You can equate to the stories and songs you’re singing, because they’re not about wealthy people, they’re about the working class … it’s not about Tommy Makem at all, but it’s about just ordinary people.”

If you go

The concert in memory of Tommy Makem will be held on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. at Memorial Hall, 590 Main St., Melrose.

The concert features The Makem Brothers — Tommy’s three sons, Connor, Rory and Shane — as well as performers Mickey and Liam Spain; The Dady Brothers; Brendan Carroll; and Liam Maguire.

Tickets for unreserved gallery seats are $22 each, and are on sale at Breads ‘n Bits of Ireland, 530 Main St., Melrose. For reserved table seats, $27, call 781-662-5407.